Hi, everyone. I am Bruce Roy, and I am running again for Senator in Chittenden County Southeast. I am incredibly pleased to be running alongside Javen. It's going to be a fun time, it really is. And we've got quite a challenge ahead of us.

There's a very different dynamic going on in Chittenden Southeast this election cycle versus 2022 when I last ran. There are a bunch of factors going on that are going to be critical to success. The first one I want to talk about is that in the 2022 Republican primary for Chittenden Southeast, there was only one good-looking, intelligent, charismatic, eloquent, and energetic candidate on the primary ballot. This year, there are two. Handsome and eloquent!

And as Javen mentioned earlier too, there's going to be another fun dynamic going on in the Democratic primary for the Senate in Chittenden County Southeast. Three incumbents are going to run, and they have two challengers. So it'll be entertaining and educational as we go forward. You've got five total candidates running against each other for three seats. They're going to spend some money, which is all good, and I think they will open up a couple of wounds that we can take advantage of. So we're going to have some fun there, I think.

The last dynamic I want to talk about is that we really have some momentum. Driven by the elections in 2024 and driven by a measure of success that I had running as a conservative in Chittenden County Southeast—where it's very difficult, very, very difficult—I'm pleased to say I got 16,000 votes. I believe with Javen by my side working together, we can get to the 20,000+ votes that we need to take a couple of seats away from the incumbents. So it's going to be great.

We also have the issues on our side. Lieutenant Governor Rodgers talks about it all the time—there are issues that are unresolved in the Senate. The senators here today can tell you more about it than I can, but there's been no progress. The way I explain that—and I apologize for folks who were at my announcement last time, I want to duplicate something—is that the 2023-2024 legislative session was ugly. It was ugly. There was a supermajority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate of Democrats and Progressives, and we had a progressive Lieutenant Governor. It made it miserable to get anything done.

Matter of fact, even worse, there was legislation passed that nobody really liked except the lobbyists and the folks who were spending the money. Things like the Global Warming Solutions Act (which was actually the session before), but the Renewable Energy Standard, the Clean Heat Standard, Act 127—which everybody is hearing about now—all got passed over the governor's veto. They overrode him, quite simply. I actually believe it was like 13 overrides of the governor's veto on these bills that no one really wanted. And the legislature said they were listening. Even when the population turned down all the school budgets in 2024 because the taxes were going nuts—16%, 14% that year—they said they were listening.

Many of us started saying, "Could it get much worse than what already happened?" We were worried. Well, you know what? It's kind of like being at the top of a cliff and being pushed off. That's how a lot of us felt. You're pushed off the cliff and all you can see are the rocks down below you. It felt terrible. But we got a parachute. The 2024 elections happened. We got six new senators from Chittenden right over here with us and 18 representatives. We broke the supermajority, which was amazing.

I believe Javen and I can take advantage of that momentum. Even though the supermajority was gone and the Democrats and Progressives were still in the majority in this current legislative session, nothing's really happening—just a few little things. There was an Act 127 that they are trying to fix, saying, "Oh, we didn't really mean it, that's not what we really did." And then Act 183, which is the education reform, that's stalled. They are not listening to the people who really need help with property taxes and that sort of stuff. So we've stalled in the legislature, but we're not falling backwards.

Now the thought is, "Well, it could have been worse." But "it could have been worse" is not a measure of success. It's not. What Javen and I have got to do is get to the Senate, get a majority, and get a conservative majority with conservative, common-sense ideas out there where we don't have to depend on committees led by Democrats to get bills put forward. We can do it. We can do it. If we can pick up a couple of seats, we're going to take that parachute, find a little updraft, and move ourselves into a place where we can make Vermont better. With your help, Jabin and I can go down there as good conservatives and common-sense folks. I believe we can win a couple of seats and force some change in Vermont.

Thank you all for being here. And Javen, appreciate you having me.

Bruce Roy

Tuesday, May 12th, 2026 | Javen Sears’ Campaign Launch Party